Loftus-Cheek, Musonda, join 28 total players as Chelsea begin preseason in earnest

Chelsea preseason is now in full swing, with a full complement of players back at Cobham to work with Thomas Tuchel & Co. They include the trio of Tammy Abraham, Tino Anjorin, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who were back first on Friday, plus 25 more for a total of 28 as confirmed by Chelsea.

While an attendance list has not been published officially, we can attempt to cobble together a list of the players there — from the official website’s reporting, pictures, and various social media post — most of whom probably will leave the first-team over the course of the next month.

The biggest names now also back include Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Edouard Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga, and Marcos Alonso — so basically all the first-team players who were not involved at Euro 2020 or the Copa América — plus older loanees like Danny Drinkwater, Davide Zappacosta, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Younger loanees back also confirmed on the website include Conor Gallagher, Marc Guehi, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja, and Malang Sarr, while Charly Musonda also makes a triumphant appearance, back after spending much of the past TWO years working hard to recover from a knee injury.

So that’s 17 confirmed.

From various pictures, we can also see Lewis Baker, Ian Maatsen, Jake Clarke-Salter, and Matt Miazga. @CarefreeYouth adds the names of Baba Rahman, Dujon Sterling, Ike Ugbo, and young goalkeepers Jamie Cumming and Lucas Bergstrom. So that’s 26.

That leaves at least four names for two spots: Ross Barkley, Tiémoué Bakayoko (both of whom were said to be at Cobham last week already, but were not in today?), and Tino Livramento and Lewis Bate (who apparently have not traveled with the youth team for their upcoming friendlies but were also not there today?). There is no word on whether Kenedy’s back from Brazil yet.

So, the list of 26:

GOALKEEPERS (4): Arrizabalaga, Bergstrom, Cumming, Mendy
CENTRAL DEFENDERS (4): Clarke-Salter, Guehi, Miazga, Sarr
FULL/WING-BACKS (5): Alonso, Baba, Maatsen, Sterling, Zappacosta
MIDFIELDERS (4): Baker, Chalobah, Drinkwater, Gallagher
ATTACKERS (6): Anjorin, Hudson-Odoi, Loftus-Cheek, Musonda, Pulisic, Ziyech
STRIKERS (3): Abraham, Broja, Ugbo

In any case, good to see a lot of familiar names, even if it’s just for a few days or weeks.